332 



CHAPTER XVII. 



VEGETABLE POISONS. MEDICINAL PLANTS. SCENTS AND PEEFUMES. MA- 

 TERIALS FOE CLOTHING. MATS AND BASKETS. FIBRES USED FOR 



CORDAGE. TIMBER. PALMS. ORNAMENTAL PLANTS. MISCELLANEOUS. 



VEGETABLE poisons are extracted by certain natives who 

 make a profound secret of their art, and it would re- 

 quire an intimacy of years before any reliable infor- 

 mation on this point could be elicited. I was ready 

 to make presents of hatchets, knives, and other valued 

 articles, to get some insight into their toxicology ; but 

 Mr. Pritchard begged me to abstain : the natives would 

 take alarm at my inquiry, and if perchance any great 

 man should be taken ill or die during my visit, it would 

 at once be said that 1, availing myself of the knowledge 

 acquired, had administered a fatal dose a most unde- 

 sirable charge in the present state of political ferment. 

 The Fijians have both slow and acute poisons, and when 

 a man is gradually sinking (often, no doubt, from a very 

 different cause), it is readily believed that " he has had 

 a dose/' He will then seek the advice of some skilful 

 native physician, if possible one at Bau, the capital, to 

 administer the necessary antidotes, and restore him to 

 health. However, very often there is no time to inter- 

 pose between the fatal dose and its consequences, the 



